The invention relates to a reciprocating piston mechanism such as an air-conditioning compressor for motor vehicles, which has a housing, a rotary driven shaft, a shaft-sealing device, in particular a gliding ring seal, at least one radial shaft bearing, in particular a radial roller bearing, and at least one axial shaft bearing, in particular an axial roller bearing. Reciprocating piston mechanisms of this type, which are used for air-conditioning systems in motor vehicles, belong to the known state of the art. Inside the housing or in components of the housing there are bearings for the rotary driven shaft which drives a mechanism that is arranged within the housing and serves to compress the refrigerant. Because the swash-plate, tilting plate, or wobble-plate device in a piston-drive mechanism of this type exerts both radial and axial forces on the shaft, the rotating shaft is subjected to a revolving bending deformation that is due primarily to the radial force components. As a consequence, the radial bearing is subjected to stresses and deformations which can cause increased wear as well as power losses due to increased friction, especially if the radial bearing is designed to be rigid relative to bending deformations so that it cannot adjust to the bending of the driving shaft, which results in forced internal reactions and increased friction.
Also known in the art are compressors that contain a gliding ring seal, which must be supplied with an appropriate lubricant. Depending on the design of the compressor housing and the bearings, the lubrication of the gliding ring seal requires appropriate bore channels to serve as conduits for the lubricant inside the housing. In terms of manufacturing technology, bore channels of this type are difficult to produce in a housing.